


Across the Table  (hopeless hearts just passing through)

by Geek_and_Nina



Series: Hope/Josie [4]
Category: Legacies (TV 2018), The Originals (TV)
Genre: F/F, Hope and Klaus - Freeform, Hope and Klaus get to have one last conversation, chambre de chasse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-29
Updated: 2019-10-29
Packaged: 2021-01-06 05:35:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21221426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Geek_and_Nina/pseuds/Geek_and_Nina
Summary: Hope, with the help of Lizzie and Josie, casts a spell to put herself and Klaus into a chambre de chasse and have one last conversation





	Across the Table  (hopeless hearts just passing through)

**Author's Note:**

> if you want to read the other messages I wrote for Klaus to the rest of his family members leave a comment!

Hope made a couple of gestures with her hands in exactly the same manner Klaus Mikaelson could remember his brother Kol doing before. He should have been annoyed, possibly even angry, but he felt nothing but pride for his daughter. She seemed older, wiser, and sadder than he remembered… but she had been through a lot and would likely see worse. He hated it for her, would obliterate all of her enemies if he were able, but, for now, he was happy to be sitting across from her. Klaus still only saw the best of himself and of Hayley in her.

“From here on out, you will only be able, to tell the truth. I love you, Dad; but I don’t trust you not to lie to me.” Hope shrugged, her eyes shining with unshed tears. She wouldn’t have been able to put a name to the storm of feelings she was experiencing. 

Her father looked exactly as she remembered him, his eyes alive with an irrepressible kid of passion and his wry grin. All Hope wanted was to touch him, hug him, have him hold her one last time, but she knew that would put an end to the incredibly fragile spell she and the twins were currently working. Distantly, she could feel them on either side of her, holding each hand even though she could see both of them in front of her in the astral world.

“Of course I would lie to you if there was something that would hurt you or your image of me.” Klaus said before scrunching his nose up in irritation.

“That’s why I cast the spell. Would… um, Dad, are you at peace?” Hope asked, jumping right to the question she really wanted an answer to. Terror lived and breathed tightly in her chest as she waited on his answer. The Necromancer had really and truly gotten into her head on this point… even Lizzie offered her help. That willingness had really thrown Hope for a loop.

“Not quite, my littlest wolf. I am in no pain; the torment everlasting I have so often been told to expect never came. There is also no holy light, no angels… no lack of worry. I worry for you constantly, especially given the dangerous manner in which you have chosen to live your life. I should not have gotten my hopes up that you would be a reclusive artist, not with the family you were born into. If I were alive…” Klaus tsk-ed and that wicked gleam in his eye returned. 

He wished more than anything to be able to reach across the table and brush the escaped tear from his daughter’s face. “The other energy I feel here… this isn’t your Aunt Freya, do you have the Saltzman twins assisting you? They were so small the last time I saw them in person. From what I have seen through you, they are growing up well… that Lizzie reminds me so much of a younger Caroline, and Josie… you have a soft spot for that one I can tell.”

“Dad, don’t. I don’t know how much they can hear or feel. Who wouldn’t have a soft spot for Josie?” Hope asked and she took careful note of the way Klaus chose to shrug and smirk as opposed to answering verbally. “Anyway, how can I help you to be at peace? I don’t know much of what that piece of shit, self-aggrandizing Necromancer said I can actually believe.”

Klaus chuckled aloud at that. “I actually hope that he spoke the truth… I don’t want to be at peace until you are. All I have ever wanted was to see you happy. The purest, easiest, peace I have ever known, were those rare moments of joy I had with you.” Hope began to cry quietly at those words.

“Your last dinner.” She said softly, looking back on one of her fondest _and_most bittersweet memories.

“Painting with you when I first truly began to get to know you. It was a beautiful day, bonding with you and discovering how interesting, smart, and kind you are. It’s a shame that precious girlfriend of yours burnt the work. I generally admire a tendency towards pyromania under any other circumstances. You should know that I like her for you… and I cannot lie.” Klaus began one of his famous monologues before Hope cut him off with a ‘Look’. 

“I doubted you would ever approve of anyone for me. Would you have ever approved of Marcel for Rebekah?” Hope was only teasing by asking the question, but her father’s eyes turned serious.

“I already had.” he answered, meeting her gaze evenly and still feeling the effects of her truth spell, “I would likely have been even pickier with you my darling girl. I blame your mother for evening out of my temper where you are concerned.”

Klaus had said all he wanted to on that subject and chose now to stare into her face, wishing he had a way to paint her. She was everything he could have ever wanted in a daughter and more. Klaus felt his own eyes begin to brim with tears as well.

“This spell won’t last much longer, the girls are channeling _my_ power, even while my consciousness is here. Are there any last messages you would like me to bring back for your siblings, Marcel, anyone else?” Hope asked, beginning to clearly weaken and pale.

“Tell Caroline that I think of our last day in New Orleans often and fondly. I am glad she was my last great romance. Tell Marcel…. He is all the warrior I had hoped him to be and that I trust him to treat my sister the way she deserves. Rebekah… just that I love her. Kol, he knows what he has and tell him to be sure to savor it.” Klaus sat back and thought as Hope committed the words to rote memory.

“Alaric, thank you for loving and protecting my daughter. It was more than I expected or could have asked for. Landon, stop being such a sad sack, I worked long and hard to be an orphan. Lizzie, siblings are precious and that bond must be respected and treasured above all else. Josette Saltzman; my daughter is a fierce, powerful, and unendingly kind individual who doesn’t always do all she ought to defend her heart. Don’t allow her to make my mistakes. When hurt she will attempt to isolate herself and spiral into her own mind, thinking to protect herself or those around her. Try to prevent this on my behalf, hers, and for yourself.

You, Hope Andrea Mikaelson, I cannot express how I feel for you in words. I am more proud than I have ever been of anything or anyone else. You are the greatest artwork I ever had a part in creating. Beautiful in every single way.” Klaus smiled softly. “Thank you, for this moment, but do not torture yourself with concern for me. I am not at peace, but I am content to look over you now and again. I love you, Hope.”

“I love you, too, Dad. Thank you, for everything.” Hope said finally, before breaking the connection and ending the spell.

The face of her father, the stainless steel table, and the unending blackness faded from in front of her. Suddenly, the sensation of the twins’ hands in her own became more solid and her body felt as though it were swirling, spinning, absolutely out of control. Hope landed back in her own body with a thump and a distinctive feeling of nausea.

“Hope… Hope, are you back?” Josie asked as she began to gasp for breath. The twins were no longer pulling power from her, but neither had released her hands. She nodded weakly and waited for herself to stop gasping.

Hope forced herself to her feet. “Get me a pen, quickly please.” She made it to her desk just as Josie pressed one into her hand. Hope began to write out the messages in a stream of consciousness, no breaks per family member and barely with spaces between words. To anyone else, the piece of paper would be nearly illegible. “Okay, I’m done. I just had to get all of that down before I forgot it. I refuse to forget anything he said to me.”

“Good. I’m glad.” Lizzie replied, her eyes swollen and red from crying. Hope looked over to see Josie’s eyes matched as well.

“I know why I was crying. Why were you two crying?” Hope asked, suddenly curious and confused. She went to sit back between the girls. “Could you hear what was happening within the spell?”

“Uhm, not quite. It was more as though… the best I could tell was… whenever you felt a very strong emotion it would wash over us, pretty much indiscernible from our own. Love, sorrow, guilt, and a few others that hit incredibly hard but I can’t name. Honestly, one of a kind experience, but don’t worry about us. How are you? You just had a conversation with your dead father and from having personally spoken to a deceased parent, that’s a… nothing like it.” Josie did her best to be a comfort.

“He looks exactly the way I remember him. His eyes, that smirk.” Hope laughed breathlessly. “I could see his face change and warm when he looked at me. All of the cruelty, the pain, and the anger left his face and that was when I really saw him and knew it really was him.”

Josie was surprised when Hope’s usually rigid posture relaxed and she tucked her auburn head into the crook of Josie’s neck. Lizzie squeezed Hope’s hand a little bit tighter. Neither were completely used to seeing the small woman actually reach out for any kind of physical comfort. Lizzie even inched a bit closer.

“Did you get the answers you were wanting?” Lizzie asked. “Nothing I felt indicated a peaceful or a not peaceful feeling. I felt a mention of myself and a mention or two of Josie, but no specifics and no answers. I must say I am very curious, but only tell me what you’re willing to tell me.”

“He’s at peace-ish. ‘Content’ was the word he used. He’s proud of me and he loves me and apparently haunts me every now and then just to keep a lookout for me. Lizzie, you remind him of a younger Caroline. He had the softest and most affectionate look on his face when he said it.”

Lizzie blushed a surprisingly bright shade of red and Josie chuckled quietly, though she still looked as though she might cry at any moment. “It’s true, I’m our mother’s daughter. What about all of the stuff you wrote down when you first woke up from the spell?” Lizzie asked, despite having just said that she wouldn’t pry.

Josie reached across Hope to smack her sister’s arm. “You don’t have to tell us if you don’t want to. I would never want you to feel uncomfortable or at all pressured.” she used her gentlest and most reassuring tone even as she shot Lizzie a death glare. The way Josie could switch between aspects of her own internal dichotomy in that way always fascinated Hope.

“There were messages that my dad wanted to be given out. I memorized them and had to get them all onto paper before I forgot anything. I”m sorry for my rudeness. My brain could only hold onto all of that information for so long.” Hope shrugged and showed them the piece of paper. “Messages for my family, both of you, Alaric, and Landon.”

Josie gasped a couple of times as Hope handed her a copy of her own message, laughed a couple of times too, and passed one of Lizzie’s over. Having read the letter, Josie reached up and began to stroke Hope’s hair. “He’s a smart man, your father. If nothing else. He seems to have us all figured out.” Josie had been particularly touched by the way he had referred to her as Josette and by his message to Lizzie.

“I, uh, I’m going to take this to Dad and maybe have a walk to think for a while, if you don’t mind, Hope?” Lizzie asked, her eyes a bit haunted. “Maybe I’ll take a peek and read the rest while I’m over here.”

“Uhm, maybe don’t. These are all pretty personal. My dad… he was much more insightful than most give him credit for.” Hope said with a sharp look.

“She’s right, Lizzie. These aren’t for all of us. I don’t know if I even want you to see mine.” Josie agreed, looking somewhat uncomfortable and a blush growing on her cheeks. “We should wait for Hope to write them all out separately and deliver them. If anyone wants to share theirs, that is up to them.”

“Of course, you’re right, and of course you would agree with your girlfriend.” Lizzie sat down at the desk to cut Alaric’s note off of the page Hope had scrawled out, folding it up and putting it in her pocket to deliver.

Josie and Hope both began to spout noises and words of protest immediately. Hope even scooted about a foot away from Josie. Her face had turned an even more vibrant shade of pink than any of them had ever seen before. “Not my girlfriend.” Hope choked out and Josie nodded vehemently.

“Yeah, but you both want to be. I was feeling all of the same things through the spell the two of you were.” Lizzie rolled her eyes and handed Hope the stack of papers, where she had cut the individual messages apart, then took her leave. Josie cleared her throat awkwardly and stared down at her hands.

“Was there anything else you would want to talk about? You know, ignoring everything my ridiculous sister just said.” Josie spoke to her feet without looking up at Hope even once. She was thoroughly embarrassed.

“My dad. He specifically mentioned… that he ships us. Verbatim, he ‘likes you for me’. I’m telling you my jaw fell open in shock. He hates everyone that Mikaelson women date, or even just love, for that matter. It’s somewhat legendary.” Hope chuckled quietly to herself. “Mostly what I learned was that even if he could have done things differently, he wouldn’t have, even after everything. He thinks I’m worth it.”

“In my experience, Hope, you are and you have been. I know he was proud of you. I felt it as clearly as though they were my own feelings.” Josie spoke quietly and looked back up into Hope’s face. “What did you think of what he said?”

“You would be good for me. You’re good for anyone lucky enough to be around you. I hope one day to live up to the way my father sees me… saw me. Jo, you’ve always seen the best in everyone, even me. I can’t go by your word.” Hope smiled sadly. “Lizzie had the right idea. I think I might go to back acres, turn, and run for a while.”

“Okay, but before you go…” Josie cupped the back of Hope’s neck and kissed her cheek, lingering significantly longer than was strictly necessary before speaking again. “You should know that you are much too good for anyone lucky enough to have you.”

Josie was about to pull away and excuse herself when Hope turned into her and kissed softly and slowly, full on the lips. “I’ll see you in the morning?” Hope asked.

“Bright and early.” Josie replied, smiling brightly.


End file.
